Heart of Darkness
by sofia313
Summary: Deputy Liz Forbes makes a shocking discovery from a grotesque crime scene and ends up taking a little orphan in. Little does she or her daughter know that there's more to Daphne Forbes than meets the eye.
1. Prologue

_Behind those eyes lies the truth and grief_  
_Behind those beautiful smiles I've seen tragedy_  
_The flawless skin hides the secrets within_  
_Silent forces that secretly ignite your sins_

_The Rasmus – Lucifer's Angel_

* * *

**Prologue**

There were days when Deputy Liz Forbes really hated her job and this certainly was one of those days. Mystic Falls was usually a peaceful little town; there weren't many crimes there, at least not this kind of crimes. Of course Liz was aware of the history of the town and she was the member of the council, just like her parents had been, but there had been no sight of any supernatural creatures in decades, not during her lifetime. She truly hoped that wouldn't change today, she hoped to be home in time to tuck her little girl in.

Caroline was 5-years-old, the most vivacious child Liz had ever seen. She was a daddy's girl and Bill was a great father, but Liz often felt guilty for not being home more. She had promised this morning to be home before Caroline would go to sleep and read her a bedtime story. Hopefully she wouldn't have to once again break that promise.

The crime scene was in the woods, two hikers had found the bodies. A homicide or possibly an animal attack. The small road was bumpy; Liz bit her lip when she saw the sheriff's car and an ambulance ahead. Sheriff Wilson was talking with a young man who was holding a sobbing young woman; they must be the hikers who had found the bodies. Liz didn't recognize them, so they probably weren't locals. She parked her car next to the sheriff's and got out.

"I can't…" the woman sobbed. "I can't go back there, I can't, I can't…"

"Shh, shh," the man muttered, stroking the woman's hair, obviously she was in shock. The man and one of the paramedics helped her into the ambulance; they were probably planning to give her some sedatives. Liz moved next to the sheriff who looked as calm as always. He had been the sheriff for over 20 years; Liz had always admired him and she could only hope one day to be as proficient as he.

"What's the situation?" she asked.

"I haven't seen the crime scene yet," the sheriff replied. "If I understood correctly, there's more than one body."

Liz swallowed, that didn't sound good at all. They waited patiently until the man stepped back outside, he looked very pale and Liz noticed how much his hands were shaking.

"Mr. Kensington," the sheriff said, his tone was firm, but also sympathetic, he knew how to handle witnesses. "I understand how difficult this must be for you, but I need you to show us the crime scene."

The man looked even paler, but he nodded.

"Yes, of course."

Silently Liz and the sheriff followed the young man to the woods; they couldn't get any further with cars.

"How far is it?" Liz asked, trying her best to mimic the sheriff's tone.

"Not very far," the man muttered absent-mindedly. "I… I threw up. I just thought I should mention that since you…you'll be gathering the evidence and stuff."

"Yes, thank you for telling that," the sheriff said and tapped the young man's shoulder.

He let out some kind of mixture of sob and a hysterical laughter.

"What kind of monster… I don't understand."

"It's alright, son," the sheriff said sympathetically.

Liz was starting to be really nervous, how bad could this be? She hadn't been a deputy for a very long, so far she had only dealt with dead bodies two times, the first one had been a car accident and the second a suicide.

"There," the young man muttered and pointed the meadow ahead. "I don't… Can I stay here?"

"Sure," the sheriff replied.

Liz noticed a tent and traces of a campfire; apparently the victims had camped here. But where were the bodies… She didn't have time to properly formulate her thought when she saw the bloodstains all over the tent and on the ground around it. The tent flap was open; the sheriff was putting disposable gloves on before looking inside. Quickly Liz followed his example, but she didn't move, she couldn't. The sheriff bent down and lifted the tent flap. His body tensed and he took a step back, clearly trying to control himself. It took a moment before he managed to speak.

"Alright… Can you stay here and watch this place, deputy? I have to go back to the car; we're going to need some backup."

"Of course," Liz replied, hoping to sound confident.

"Good, I'll be right back." He paused and pressed his lips together. "You might not want to look in there before the backup arrives. Not a pretty sight."

Liz tried her best to stay calm after the sheriff had left, she was very nervous. She couldn't help but to stare at the bloody tent, her imagination was running wild. This was ridiculous; she was a law enforcement officer… Something was moving in the tent. Had she imagined it? No, there was someone or something alive there… Liz acted immediately; she pulled out her gun and approached the tent.

"Police!" she shouted. "You in the tent, come out with your hands up!"

There was no reply; Liz repeated her words few times before she realized that maybe this person, if it was a person, was injured. She couldn't wait for the sheriff to come back, she had to look inside. Determinedly she lifted the tent flap and regretted it immediately; she had never seen anything so terrible. There were two bodies lying in the tent, they both had been skinned. There was blood and body parts everywhere, Liz had to fight the urge to vomit. Then she heard a weak sound, something was moving under a sleeping bag.

"Police!" she shouted and pointed her gun towards the sleeping bag. She didn't get any reply and this creature looked small, maybe it was an animal. After a short hesitation Liz stepped inside, trying to avoid looking at the bodies. She grabbed the sleeping back and yanked it off the creature. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw what it was, a child. She couldn't be older than 2 or 3; she was naked and covered with blood.

"Dear God…" Liz muttered.

This was so wrong, so horrible. Liz was frozen in shock when the child looked at her with her big eyes and tilted her head.

"Mama?"


	2. Another Day in Paradise

**Chapter 1**

**Another Day in Paradise**

12 years later

"_Oh  
Think twice  
'Cause it's another day for you and me in paradise  
Oh  
Think twice  
'Cause it's another day for you  
You and me in paradise…"_

Daphne Forbes opened her eyes immediately when her clock radio started to play the Phil Collins song, she got into a sitting position as fast as she could and turned it off. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, today was the day. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, maybe things had changed during the summer. Yes, and maybe pigs had suddenly learn how to fly. It didn't matter, they didn't matter, she was bulletproof and they couldn't get to her.

Determinedly she stood up, stretched her arms and walked to the bathroom. She washed her face with ice-cold water before starting to untangle her messy auburn hair. Her long forelock kept getting in her eyes, but she hadn't cut it, even though her sister kept telling her that it hid her face. That was the whole point of it, but she couldn't say that to Caroline. Daphne looked at her reflection in the mirror and kept assuring herself that she could do this. Just words. Stick and stones… A sudden knock from the door startled her.

"Daphne?" Caroline's voice said. "I need to take a shower."

"I'm almost done," she replied and quickly put her hair up in a messy bun.

Her sister was waiting behind the door with her towel; she was only wearing a tank top and panties.

"Morning," Caroline said while passing her.

"Coffee?" Daphne asked when her sister closed the bathroom door behind her.

"Please!"

Daphne went back to her room and got dressed; she had placed her clothes neatly on a chair last night before going to bed. An oversize olive sweater, a plaid skirt which reached over her knees, red sneakers and her glasses, she was half blind without them. Her backpack was already packed; carelessly she grabbed it before heading downstairs. Her mom had already left to work, as usual.

There were few drops of old coffee at the bottom of the coffeepot, but Daphne washed it and made a fresh pot. She didn't drink coffee herself, she was happy with her bowl of honey cereal and milk. She enjoyed eating her breakfast in peace, she had plenty of time before Caroline would be ready. Finally her sister came downstairs, looking as flawless as ever wearing a dark blue dress.

"We have to go," Caroline said while quickly pouring herself a cup of coffee. "First day in school, I can't be late."

"Yeah," Daphne muttered and washed her bowl before placing it in the sink.

Caroline seemed to be in a good mood, she turned the radio on as soon as they were in the car and kept chatting the whole time while driving to school. Daphne wasn't much of a talker, but usually she liked to listen to her sister's lighthearted chatting, somehow it calmed her.

"Have a nice day," Caroline said cheerfully and tapped her shoulder before getting out of the car.

"You too, Care," Daphne muttered.

The schoolyard was full of chatting people; everyone looked rested after the summer. Caroline had already spotted some of her friends; they smiled and waved at her. Daphne headed inside, she had no reason to stay outside. A group of girls from her class passed her on the hallway and of course one of them, Emily Campbell, had to accidently shove her.

"Oops, sorry," she said smiling, "I just love your outfit. Freak."

All the other girls started to giggle; Daphne ignored them and headed to her locker. Clearly nothing had changed. Elena Gilbert and Bonnie Bennett passed her in front of her locker and greeted her briefly before continuing their conversation about Kelly Beech's dress. Elena seemed to be doing alright after losing her parents; Daphne hadn't really spoken with her after the funeral. She had talked with Jeremy few times during the summer, they had used to be friends, but now he had new friends, like Vicki Donovan, and he was usually always on something. Obviously he was struggling with his loss. Daphne turned around and someone bumped into her.

"I'm sorry," a man's voice said, he actually sounded sincere.

Daphne looked up and her eyes widened. She hadn't seen this boy before; he was wearing jeans, a dark brown leatherjacket and sunglasses. He was a very good-looking, but that wasn't what caught her attention, it was his scent. She stared at him intensively and almost leaned closer in order to sniff him, as crazy as that was. It wasn't his aftershave, it was something else… He probably thought that she was mentally challenged, but he gave her a brief smile

"Excuse me," he said and walked past her.

Of course some of the girls had seen the whole thing, they were laughing.

"Nice, freak. Did you drool on him?"

Daphne tried to pull herself together; she could still smell that boy… Oh great, she was losing her mind. She tried her best to look careless and headed to her first class when someone grabbed her hand.

"Hey, Daph," Jeremy's voice said. "I need a quick favor."

"What…" she started, but he was already pulling her into the men's room. "No, wait, I can't go in there…"

Some boy was just washing his hands, he looked up and grinned.

"Really, Gilbert? You could do better…"

"Shut up," Jeremy replied and waited until the boy was outside.

Daphne felt very uncomfortable, but it didn't really matter what she did, the others would always find some reason to pick on her.

"What is it, Jeremy?" she asked.

"Help me with these," he replied and handed her a bottle of eye drops.

She took a closer look at him and noticed that his pupils were dilated and his hands were shaking.

"Jeremy…"

"Don't please," he sighed. "I already have Elena and Aunt Jenna yakking at me; could you just be my friend?"

"I am your friend," she muttered. "And I don't want you to destroy your life, please…"

She didn't have time to finish her sentence when the door flew open and Elena stormed in.

"Great," she snapped and grabbed Jeremy's chin. "It's the first day of school and you're stoned."

"No, I'm not," Jeremy huffed.

"Where is it?" she demanded. "Is it on you?"

"Stop! You need to chill yourself, alright?"

"Chill myself? What's that, a stoner's talk?"

"Elena," Daphne said cautiously. "Maybe you should…"

"I need to talk with my brother," Elena interrupted her tensely. "Alone, please."

"Its okay, Daph," Jeremy huffed. "I'll see you later; my sister's acting crazy…"

"You haven't seen crazy, Jeremy," Elena snapped. "I gave you a summer pass, but I'm done watching you destroy yourself…"

Daphne left as quickly as she could; obviously they needed to sort things out in private, although the men's room probably wasn't the most private place. She didn't think that Elena's tactic was the best one, not with Jeremy, but she understood how frustrated Elena was. She couldn't imagine what she would have done if Caroline would have used drugs. Her first class was math; the classroom was almost full when she got there, so she chose a desk on the front row, as usually.

"You should have seen how she stared at that hot new guy," Amy Palmer was saying, she knew perfectly well that Daphne could hear her. "What a freak, poor Caroline. I'm telling you, if my mom would have wanted to bring that thing to our house, I would have told her to put it out of its misery."

The other girls laughed, as they usually did. Daphne sighed and picked up her book, it seemed that she had another great school year ahead.


End file.
